redbird | (Reply)

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I'm not sure about an advance copy, let alone how much in advance would be feasible. The normal procedure would be through a sales rep, and they'd probably try to sell you the NY state or city book. The thing is, these really are test review books, not actual textbooks. That means both that it's hit-the-high-spots (evolution in about 25 pages, which is more than we usually get to give it; plate tectonics in four or five.) and focused on what the particular state, Colorado in this case, is looking for, not necessarily on what any individual teacher or student would think appropriate as a high school science curriculum. (I have to fit all of this, including two review tests, a glossary, and a few pages of mechanical necessities like the ToC, into 384 pages max, and 350 would be better.) Still, I'm mostly feeling friendly toward whoever in Colorado defined the standard, except for the one about ocean currents I was trying to decipher this afternoon--the prepositions are mangled, such that I think they want effects of ocean currents on climate, but the syntax could equally well mean the reverse. The draft I saved before leaving work this afternoon touches on both: how the Gulf Stream and California Current affect climate (one warm current, one cool) and what global warming might do to the Gulf Stream.